When the Chilean photogrammetric service, WSdata3D, required erupting measurements of one of the largest mines in the world, they used the eBee mapping drones to ensure operator safety and dramatically increase productivity.
WSdata3D contracted for a survey of copper production in January of a large copper mine in northern Chile. This open-air copper mine has a radius of 3 km and a depth of 1 km, making it one of the largest open-pit mines in the world. "Mineral development companies need service providers who can collect information on the site and require service providers to collect a large amount of accurate data in a short amount of time," said Eric Romersa, founder of WSdata3D. "They found us because they believed we could Efficient way to get accurate data. "
"Mineral development companies need service providers who can collect information on site, and require service providers to collect a large amount of accurate data in a short period of time."
Mr. Romersa and his drone mapping team used senseFly's eBee drone to complete the mapping in a tough mining environment. "The eBee performed best for the UAV we were trying out," he said. "EBee can fly at a high altitude and fly steadily in a variable wind speed environment, and it does not require harshness Takeoff and landing environment, and eBee's flight preparation software also helped us to easily create a fly-by-plane plan and later helped to generate a very accurate 3D model with data-processing software. "
The WSdata3D team first estimated possible takeoff and landing locations and selected a higher takeoff point to reduce the power consumption of the initial eBee flight and maximize flight time. They also focused on the area to be mapped in eBee's flight planning software (eMotion 2), and the program automatically generated a complete flight plan and then set up ground control points to ensure accurate geo-coordinates of DTMs. After the flight planning is completed, the WSdata3D project team will fly the drone for 30 minutes in the area needing mapping.
Data processing and modeling are done after each UAV flight. The WSdata3D team imported 250 flight-acquired images into eBee's post-processing software, Postflight Terra 3D, using software to generate high-precision orthophotos - an aerial snapshot of copper mines (ground sampling spacing of 7 cm / pixel) The software also generated a 3D digital terrain model (DTM). This model is used to measure the amount of copper output of copper key. Because the project goal was to calculate the amount of copper produced within a month of copper, the WSdata3D team repeated the previous mapping and modeling efforts four weeks later. Afterwards, the WSdata3D project team used GlobalMapper and CADD software to compare the two models generated before and after this month and calculated the copper content difference in two different models, that is, calculated the specific copper output in this month.
"The customer was very pleased with the results we got using the drone," said Mr. Romersa. "They are very pleased with the digital terrain model (DTM) we generate with a resolution of 7 cm and are happy to have aerial images of the entire copper mine that will assist them in overseeing the entire mining process."
"From a productivity point of view, both of our project teams completed all the mapping in a single day, and seven people needed to work with the radar." Mining companies now employ WSdata3D companies often to carry out volume calculations and other Mapping project.
"Our team of two completed all the mapping work in a single day, and seven people needed to work with the radar.
